Re: [gentoo-user] Problem with new install

[Mike Diehl <mdiehl@diehlnet.com>]

Well, I got it to boot.  Now that it's up, I can see what the problem was/is.  
There are no disk device files in /dev.

I created the appropriate nodes and things went much better.

The problem was that CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED_V2 was on

I just closed up the chassis and it will ship in the morning.

Thank you for your help!

Mike.

On Friday 15 October 2010 3:02:27 pm Florian Philipp wrote:
> Am 15.10.2010 21:23, schrieb Mike Diehl:
> > On Friday 15 October 2010 11:40:34 am Florian Philipp wrote:
> >> Am 15.10.2010 19:29, schrieb Mike Diehl:
> >>> Hi all.
> >>> 
> >>> I've never had this much trouble with a server before, but I've been
> >>> pulling my hair out.
> >>> 
> >>> The install seemed to go well, but when I rebooted it from it's own
> >>> hard drive, it fails.  fsck claims that it can't open /dev/sda3 or
> >>> that the superblock doesn't describe a valid ext2 filesystem.
> >> 
> >> *All* of the drivers could be too much. There is a generic driver which
> >> can prevent the "right" driver from taking over. In that case you end up
> >> with a /dev/hda node and no DMA. Try to deactivate "Generic ATA support"
> >> = CONFIG_ATA_GENERIC and "generic/default IDE chipset support" =
> >> CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC.
> >> I think it is the second option that causes that problem. However, you
> >> won't need the first option, either.
> > 
> > I tried this, first without success.  I then ran through all combinations
> > of sda3, sdb3, hda3, hdb3 in /etc/fstab.  This didn't work.
> > 
> >> Instead of your brute-force "yes to all" approach, newer kernels also
> >> support `make localyesconfig` which takes all modules currently used in
> >> the running kernel and compiles them into the new kernel. It is very
> >> helpful when you already have a good but generic kernel like the one on
> >> your live CD.
> > 
> > I tried this, next.  At least now, I believe I have a viable kernel.  But
> > it still didn't work.
> > 
> >> If even that doesn't help, it might be possible that the device
> >> numbering has changed and your hard disk is detected as /dev/sdb or so.
> >> Try mounting it by UUID (google for it, please).
> > 
> > I tried this.  Only now, fsck.ext2 tells me that it can't resolve the
> > UUID.
> > 
> > Here is the new fstab:
> > /dev/sda1       /boot           ext2            noauto,noatime  1 2
> > 
> > UUID=ba7511dd-a5f9-48d8-8102-cf71c08a0c7b     /       ext2    noatime   
> > 0 1
> > 
> > /dev/sda2       none            swap            sw              0 0
> > /dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom      auto            noauto,ro       0
> > 0
> > 
> > At this point, I'm going to move the drive to a different port on the
> > SATA chain; shouldn't change anything, but I'm running out of ideas. 
> > I'll also check the BIOS for anything stupid-obvious.
> > 
> > So, I guess I'm still stuck!
> 
> Hmm, sounds like a serious problem. I suggest you try to get into an
> early stage during boot and try to move forward from there. Try to add
> '1' to the parameters in order to get into single-user mode. You can
> also try 'init=/bin/bash'.
> 
> There are lots of other options you can try. For a long time, 'noapic'
> (not 'noapci') was my first candidate for odd boot issues. Take a look
> at /usr/sr/linux/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt for more options.
> 
> Also, which kernel sources are you using and which live CD (with which
> kernel version)?  Is there a specific reason why you use ext2 for root?
> What kind of system do you run, anyway? And, just by chance, you are not
> using an extremely large (>1TB) drive which might happen to have 4kB
> blocks instead of 512 B?
> 
> Regards,
> Florian Philipp

-- 

Take care and have fun,
Mike Diehl.